Reading Notes: Folklore of the Holy Land Part A

Moslem Cosmogony

Having grown up in a Christian family, stories from the Holy Land of other religions is not something that I am very familiar with. For that reason, reading this unit was really interesting. For this first story, split up into two parts, I liked the way that it served as a background to be set up for the rest of the story that was to come. It literally explained the way that everything came to be. To rewrite this piece, I thought it might be fun to put a childlike twist on it. I would use a character that is wandering through a void of nothingness, finding clues or instructions or something of the sort that are telling him what to create. The finished product of the hunt, the X marks the spot if you will, that results in everything being created and coming into being just as it was planned. 

Our Father Adam

For the rewriting of this piece, I would want to focus in really closely on the development of Adam as a character, and specifically on the way that he himself was created. I would write it about a quest that other world leaders took to this Holy Land to make their contribute of the dirt that was used to mold Adam into the person he became. This comes from the way that it describes him being a man of many colors and highly diverse. While it is a seemingly small aspect to focus on, I think it is important to realize how Adam is at his core as it will further explain how he did some of the things he did and that is a story that I want to tell. 

Noah

This section of the story in this collection seems focused primarily on Noah, as revealed by the title itself. For a rewrite, to put a more creative twist on it, I was thinking it might be particularly interesting to focus more on the Og, the character who was set on destroying the ark and everyone in it. The reasoning for wanting to tell this story is that there isn't really a reason giving for his desire to do so. I would use character and plot development to explain reasoning for despising Noah and those around him somehow, explaining a reason for hard feelings between him and the people, even if it was simply that the ark wasn't big enough for him and he was jealous as a result. 

The character of Noah from the piece above.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Job and His Family

I love the story of Job in the Bible so it was super interesting to read a different take on it, even if this one was very different and had very few similarities. For a rewrite, I am not completely sure which direction I would want to take this one, but maybe I could even change the fact that Job's wife wanted to go to the devil and make it Job himself who wanted to do such a thing.

The character of Job from the piece above enduring

disease and trial. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Lokman

The only thing about this story that I might would make different is the ending. I would consider doing a rewrite in which the character wasn't healed, but instead the higher being (God figure) was able to heal him directly. This might be a stretch of sorts, but was the only thing I could come up with that wasn't just retelling the story as it was. 

Abraham, the Friend of God

I like the way the next few stories focused on the same character of Abraham, but have similar ideas for how to tell them. For the friend of God piece, I would want to make it a song/poem like piece in which they praise their God for what he did for them through Abraham when he found favor on him.

Abraham the Nimrod

This piece reminds me a little bit of the one in Daniel in the Bible where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are thrown into the fiery furnace. For a rewrite, I would want to do a journal/diary entry of some sorts from Abraham in order to give it a personal account of the trial that he experienced by being tested in this way by Nimrod.

Abraham: Mecca and Hebron

This piece also follows the same theme of Abraham being tested in his ability to stay faithful to his god. I would want to also focus this one from a perspective of a letter in which he is telling someone, maybe his wife or a friend, about what he is enduring, questioning it but vowing that he will not falter because he knows that in the end it will be worth it. 

Abraham's Hospitality

Finally, something good seems to be happening for Abraham. I could explain this from Abraham's perspective as he finds the blessing and tries to figure out what to do with it. Finally, he would find people in need of what he had and take them in with him, rendering himself poor in order to help others. This would center around developing the meaning of the title, showing that Abraham is in fact a hospitable person.

Bibliography

J. E. Hanauer's Folk-lore of the Holy Land: Moslem, Christian and Jewish